Hope for meat workers after plant shuts doors

With more than 300 jobs lost at Ovation's Waipukurau
meat works, Patrick O'Sullivan asks what comes next?
Takapau Silver Fern Farms is actively recruiting workers laid off from Ovation meat works in Waipukurau 21km away.
More than 300 jobs were lost after Ovation on Thursday announced it planned to close its boning plant, the biggest employer in the town of 4500.
Silver Fern planned to have staff with job application forms at Ovation's resource centre, set up to counsel workers.
Managing director of Ovation New Zealand, Willem Sandberg, said there was a demand for skilled meat workers.
"Because of the turnover of staff, every year we had to search for 100 new people and start them from scratch."
Economic theory says the closure of Ovation's boning plant, with the loss of 300 jobs, will be good in the long run - resources that are not used to their full potential will now be freed up to be used for the greater wealth of all.
Small comfort for the unemployed.
In the short-term, locals will suffer. Real estate will have less demand. Unemployment will rise. Morale in the community will fall.
The plant has been under-utilised for many years. It was set up in 1985 when the national lamb kill was 40 million but it is less than half that today.
Central Hawke's Bay mayor Peter Butler estimates the lost wages will be $7.5 million less in the community than last year. The wage contribution had fallen along with stock numbers in recent years.
Meatworkers Union organiser Eric Mischefski said the plant's closure seemed inevitable and brought into question the viability of meatworks as a career option, with last season's night shift only lasting two months.
"In the absence of stock, something's got to give," he said. "You can't pay a mortgage on two months a year."
Central Hawke's Bay Budget Services co-ordinator Carmel Thompson said the number of people seeking help had doubled in the last year and was now likely to increase.
"The ones we feel sorry for are where they may have two incomes and suddenly their income is going down when everyone is needing all they have."
The food bank had already been under pressure with people donating less during the recession.
"I would think it would be very difficult for people to get extra work," she said. "I imagine many will look to move out of the area."
Central Hawke's Bay College principal Dawid De Villiers was deputy principal at Dannevirke High School in 2008, when the Oringi meat works closed with a loss of 400 jobs.
"That obviously had a huge affect but it didn't affect the school that much. I hope it is the same for here," he said.
The Oringi plant had since sold to the local lines company and was a successful business park and major employer.
Ovation's site had potential, with its own rail siding and freezer facilities which Mr Sandberg said were rare commodities.
Mr Sandberg said he was approaching other food producers about possible uses for the facility.
Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce CEO Murray Douglas said the closure was "devastating" for the area but all was not lost.
"It's really, really disappointing," he said. "This is a large number of jobs not only for Waipukurau but for Hawke's Bay."
He hoped there would be interest from other processors in the plant.
"There are other uses for facilities with freezing and chilling capability, we have seen that with the sites at Whakatu and Tomoana. And, of course, down the track there will be more irrigated land in this part of Hawke's Bay."
McCain, which recently spent $19 million on its Hastings vegetable processing plant, was reliant on nearby freezers in Whakatu. Their packaging plant could not keep pace with their processing plant, so vegetables were stored there.
Eddie Spargo worked at Ovation for more than 20 years. "A lot of people got their start there and went on to other jobs," he said. "Even after strikes everyone got along. It will be remembered fondly."